Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisAlongside his monumental Zibaldone (Notebooks) and the poems collected in Canti, which make him one of Italy’s greatest and best-loved poets, Giacomo Leopardi penned a number of fictional pieces, mostly in the form of gently humorous dialogues, in which he dealt with philosophical ideas and many of the metaphysical questions that preoccupied his restless spirit. First published in 1827 and here presented in a new translation by J.G. Nichols along with Thoughts, Leopardi’s own selected pearls of wisdom and gems of social observation, Moral Fables will enchant both those who are familiar with and those who are new to the works of Italy’s last great polymath.

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Book SynopsisWhen it is discovered that the reigning world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is on board a cruiser heading for Buenos Aires, a fellow passenger challenges him to a game. Czentovic easily defeats him, but during the rematch a mysterious Austrian, Dr B., intervenes and, to the surprise of everyone, helps the underdog obtain a draw. When, the next day, Dr B. confides in a compatriot travelling on the same ship and decides to reveal the harrowing secret behind his formidable chess knowledge, a chilling tale of imprisonment and psychological torment unfolds. Stefan Zweig’s last and most famous story, ‘A Game of Chess’ was written in exile in Brazil and explores its author’s anxieties about the situation in Europe following the rise of the Nazi regime. The tale is presented here in a brand-new translation, along with three of the master storyteller’s most acclaimed novellas: Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, The Invisible Collection and Incident on Lake Geneva.Trade ReviewPerhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game. * The Economist *A perfect introduction to Zweig. * The Jewish Chronicle *It is somehow progressively thrilling, yet consistently still and calculated. With barely a note out of tune, this is a short story masterclass. * The Big Issue *Although these four stories are in many ways very different, they all share a theme of single-minded behaviour, are underpinned by social and political commentary, full of symbolism and are rich in metaphor and allegory. This ensures that they really do feel timeless – true modern-day parables. * Nudge Books *

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Book SynopsisSet in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the chaotic winter of 1918–19, The White Guard, Bulgakov’s first full-length novel, tells the story of a Russian-speaking family trapped in circumstances that threaten to destroy them. As in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the narrative centres on the stark contrast between the cosy domesticity of family life on the one hand, and wide-ranging and destructive historical events on the other. The result is a disturbing, often shocking story, illuminated, however, by shafts of light that testify to people’s resilience, humanity and ability to love in even the most adverse circumstances.Trade ReviewOne of the great writers of the twentieth century. -- A.S. Byatt

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce’s first published book, which he wrote when he was still in his twenties, Dubliners is far removed from the bold experimentalism of his later work, but is essential for understanding the author’s development as a writer, and endures as a masterly example of the short-story form. Although ranging considerably in tone, mood and milieu, the fifteen short stories included in this collection all centre around the city of Dublin and its inhabitants at the beginning of the twentieth-century. From the unsettling adventure of two truant schoolboys to the crafty schemes of two con-men, from a young woman’s refusal to abandon Ireland and elope with a sailor to a man’s moment of clarity during an annual dance party, these stories offer a moving portrait of an entire world and era which has all but disappeared.Trade ReviewHis writing is not about something; it is that something itself. -- Samuel BeckettIts deep power abides in the inextricability of Joyce’s masterly control of language and the breadth of his vision. -- Eimear McBride

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Book SynopsisOn the eve of the Crimean War, the young, headstrong Yelena, the daughter of aristocratic Russian parents, falls in love with a revolutionary from Bulgaria named Insarov. Facing the wrath and disapproval of her family, Yelena abandons her home to follow Insarov to Bulgaria. Their fateful match sets in motion a series of tragic events which challenge notions of love, revolution and idealism. A highly controversial work upon its original publication, Ivan Turgenev’s On the Eve is now recognized as one of the masterpieces of Russian literature and an essential document of the upheaval that dominated Russian society in the years prior to the Crimean War. Turgenev’s restrained, nuanced prose is rendered beautifully in Michael Pursglove’s new translation.Trade ReviewA deep and penetrating diagnosis of the destinies of the Russia of the fifties. -- Edward Garnett

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Book SynopsisWhen Céline’s first novel, Journey to the End of the Night was first published in 1932, it created an instant scandal, being extravagantly praised by its supporters and savagely attacked by its horrified opponents. Four years later came the sequel, Death on Credit. Both were a new kind of novel, frank about the author’s thoughts and actions in ways that readers had never encountered, ultra-realistic – and full of incidents that could not possibly be true to life – and characters that stretched the imagination. In Death on Credit, Ferdinand Bardamu, Céline’s alter ego, is a doctor in Paris, treating the poor who seldom pay him but who take every advantage of his availability. The action is not continuous but goes back in time to earlier memories and often moves into fantasy, especially in Bardamu’s sexual escapades; the style becomes deliberately rougher and sentences disintegrate to catch the flavour of the teeming world of everyday Parisian tragedies, the struggle to make a living, illness, venereal disease, the sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed. This fascinating book by one of the greatest twentieth-century novelists is an unforgettable experience for the reader.Trade ReviewThe most blackly humorous and disenchanted voice in all of French literature. * London Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisAs ideological ferment grips Russia, a small group of revolutionaries, led by Pyotr Verkhovensky and inspired by Nikolai Stavrogin, plan to spread destruction and anarchy throughout the country. Morally bankrupt, they are prepared to use whatever means necessary to achieve their goal, including murder and incitement to suicide. But when they are forced to test the limits of their doctrine and kill one of their own to secure the secrecy of their mission, the ragtag group breaks up in mutual recrimination.Devils is at once a compelling political statement and a study of atheism and its calamitous effect on a country that is teetering on the edge of an abyss. Seen as Dostoevsky's most powerful indictment of man's propensity to violence, this darkly humorous work, shot through with grotesque comedy, is presented here in Roger Cockrell's masterful new translation.Trade Review"It is a merciless expose of certain aspects of the Russian revolutionary movements of the mid-19th century, and of the various kinds of revolutionary and terrorist psychology." - Dr Rowan Williams

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Book SynopsisIn contrast with the epic scope of the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola’s short stories are concerned with the everyday aspects of human existence and the interests of ordinary people. From the cruel irony of ‘Captain Burle’ to the Rabelaisian exuberance of ‘Coqueville on the Spree’, these stories display the broad range of Zola’s imagination, using a variety of tones, from the quietly cynical to the compassionate, from the playful to the tragic. Contains: Dead Men Tell No Tales Coqueville on the Spree Captain Burle Shellfish for Monsieur ChabreTable of ContentsContains: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Captain Burle, Coqueville on the Spree, Shellfish for Monsieur Chabri.

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Book SynopsisMost famous for his twenty-volume dissection of nineteenth-century French mores and society, the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola was also an extremely accomplished short-story writer, as exemplified by the tales included in this volume. Concerned with the manifold aspects of everyday life and varying in their settings – from aristocratic drawing rooms to poverty-stricken garrets, from the hustle and bustle of Paris to the Provençal countryside of the author’s childhood – these stories will keep the reader riveted from the beginning to the end and surprise for their modernity. Contains: The Attack on the Mill The Girl Who Loves Me Rentafoil Death by Advertising Story of a Madman Big Michu The Way People Die A Flash in the Pan Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Priests and Sinners Fair Exchange The Haunted HouseTable of ContentsContains: The Attack on the Mill, The Girl Who Loves Me, Rentafoil, Death by Advertising, Story of a Madman, Big Michu, The Way People Die, A Flash in the Pan, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, Priests and Sinners, Fair Exchange The Haunted House

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Book SynopsisA delightful variation on the long tradition of bestiary writing, Jules Renard’s short verse and prose poems have captured the imagination of readers and artists since they were originally written in 1894, with Ravel famously setting five of them to music. Presented in a new version by acclaimed translator Richard Stokes, this sumptuously produced volume will captivate and enchant new generations of readers the world over.

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Book SynopsisWhen shop-owner Julia Segovia decides that she’s going to marry the handsome if exceedingly young and naive soldier Valentin Brû, he willingly goes along with her scheme. Little does he know that he will have to contend with disgruntled in-laws, eccentric locals, a cunning wife, a shifty career in fortune-telling, the approaching threat of war with Germany and the mysteries of Parisian public transport. With a cast of eccentric characters, amusing incidents and an uplifting tone, The Sunday of Life – its title playfully alluding to Hegel’s theory of history – is a scintillating novel which showcases Queneau’s trademark punning, sly wit and delight in the absurdity of people and situations.Trade ReviewA very funny book with great charm. * The Times *

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Book SynopsisIn late-nineteenth-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he’s working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character, who is now in Montparnasse, where he learns to drink absinthe and is picked up by a friendly prostitute.Trade ReviewOne of the most prodigiously gifted and influential French writers. The Irish Times

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Book SynopsisPublished originally as the purported French translation of a novel by fictional Irish writer Sally Mara, We Always Treat Women Too Well is set in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising and tells the story of the siege of a small post office by a group of rebels, who discover to their embarrassment that a female postal clerk, Gertie Girdle, is still in the lavatory some time after they have shot or expelled the rest of the staff. The events that follow are not for prudish readers, forming a scintillating, linguistically delightful and hilarious narrative. By far Queneau’s bawdiest work, We Always Treat Women Too Well contains all of its author’s hallmarks: wit, stylistic innovation and formal playfulness – expertly rendered into English by Barbara Wright’s classic translation.Trade ReviewEndowed with Queneau’s cerebral prankishness, electric pace and cut-on-the-bias poetry. -- John Updike

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Book SynopsisWith his birth itself a monumental exploit in itself, it is clear that the giant Pantagruel is destined to great things, and the novel that bears his name chronicles his the remarkable life of the exuberant youth: from his voracious reading habits to his escapades with the knave Panurge and his prowess in battle. The second work in this volume deals with the history of his father Gargantua, whose biography is equally if not more outlandish and larger than life. But these bawdy and boisterous tales, with their fixation on food and faeces, are not just entertaining yarns, as François Rabelais, one of the foremost humanists of the sixteenth century, parodies medieval learning, lambasts the established church authority and develops his own ideal visions for the ordering of society.Trade ReviewAndrew Brown... creates a wholly credible, modern, reinvigorated Rabelais who still jumps off the page after more than 450 years. * TLS *Long before there was James Joyce, there was the experimental literary chaos of Rabelais. * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe brooding, introverted Count von O— arrives in Venice during the carnival in order to escape from his duties and live incognito. But after encountering an enigmatic Armenian stranger who makes an uncanny pronouncement, a bizarre chain of events unfolds, involving a Jesuit secret society, a ghostly seance and a mysterious Sicilian magician – leading the Count to question his faith and morality. First serialized in 1787–89, this multilayered, fragmentary novel – which gave Friedrich Schiller a platform to expound his Enlightenment ideas on society and religion – has thrilled and engaged lovers of Gothic literature for over two centuries.Trade ReviewFrederick von Schiller was something more than a great author; he was also in an eminent sense a great man; and his works are not more worthy of being studied for their singular force and originality than his moral character for its nobility and aspiring grandeur. -- Thomas De Quincey

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Book SynopsisThe notorious adventurer and seducer Giacomo Casanova tells of his travels – on the run from the authorities of his native Venice – around northern Europe, poking fun at the ruling classes he encounters there, before focusing on a pivotal incident that occurs in Warsaw. Insulted by a Polish count over an Italian ballerina, Casanova finds himself forced to challenge his rival to a duel, and the sequence of events and their aftermath are described with gusto by the narrator. A rollicking autobiographical account by one of the most iconic figures of eighteenth-century Europe, The Duel is presented here with an extract about the same event from Casanova’s memoirs, written fifteen years later.Trade ReviewThe remarkable thing about Giacomo Casanova is that not only did he have a bewilderingly eventful life, not only was he a thinker of wide reading and great shrewdness, but he also knew how to tell a tale as well as the cleverest of novelists. -- Tim Parks

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Book SynopsisOn a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father’s Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the daughter of her doctor, and proposes to her. Although she does not reciprocate his feelings, she agrees to marry him and live with him in the capital, where the couple’s relationship is marred by tensions: Yulia is filled with regrets about her choice and boredom with her new existence, while Alexei is nagged by the suspicion that she married him for his money alone. However, as time passes and misfortune strikes, they both learn to reassess all of their assumptions. Chekhov’s second longest prose work after The Steppe, Three Years is, in the author’s own words, “a novel of Moscow life” and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella helped cement Chekhov’s reputation as a major figure in Russian literature.Trade ReviewWhat writers influenced me as a young man? Chekhov! As a dramatist? Chekhov! As a story writer? Chekhov! -- Tennessee Williams

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Book SynopsisFound in the Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci’s writings and drawings, ‘The Prophecies’ are a collection of enigmatic divinatory pronouncements, some punning and playful, others dire and ominous. While the author’s intentions behind these utterances are unclear, they clearly attest to the artist’s fevered and troubled imagination and offer a glimpse into a world very similar to that depicted in his lost painting The Battle of Anghiari. This volume also contains a further selection of Leonardo da Vinci’s fragmentary writings, in the form of fables and aphorisms. Taken together, these pieces provide an invaluable insight into the thought processes of one of the Renaissance’s most productive minds.

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Book SynopsisTravelling salesman Enrico Gaia decides to play a trick on the conceited ageing littérateur Mario Samigli: he dupes him into thinking that a representative of a prestigious Viennese publishing house wants to commission a German translation of a long-forgotten novel Samigli had written and published at his own expense forty years ago. This leads the old man to reach new heights of self-delusion, spurred on by Gaia’s succession of ruses. In this tragicomic study of deception and disappointment, Italo Svevo – who himself was an undiscovered writer until his old age – parodies elements of his own life and offers an insightful psychological portrait of a person who has lost touch with reality.Trade Review…a wonderful comedy where the resourcefulness of the vain and creative mind is aided by a variety of unlikely circumstances in its desperate effort to reconstruct self-esteem and serenity -- Tim Parks

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Book SynopsisThe lowly, downtrodden Paris civil servant Jean Folantin seeks respite from the boredom and isolation of his life in the small joys of food and the occasional embraces of a prostitute. But whatever he does, wherever he turns in his quest for some pleasure, his dissatisfaction only increases, until he is forced to realize that he has to abandon all hope and just “go with the flow”. This 1882 novella, a key work in Huysmans’ literary development – prefiguring in its protagonist the figure of Jean des Esseintes, the hero of À rebours, written two years later – is accompanied here by another masterly study of human despair, ‘M. Bougran’s Retirement’.Trade ReviewWith the Flow is the most complete expression of that pessimism which, even at the start of the twenty-first century, remains central to our self-perception. -- Simon Callow

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Book SynopsisA respectable young widow and mother of two children, the Marquise of O- finds herself inexplicably pregnant after being rescued by a Russian officer from the attentions of his soldiers during the storming of her town's citadel. Convinced of her own innocence and wishing to vindicate her own integrity, the Marquise places an advert in the newspapers, appealing for the father to come forward and promising to marry him. But will this be enough to quench her family's doubts and the derision of the society around her? Will this help her solve the mystery and urge the perpetrator to acknowledge paternity of the child? One of the great classics of German literature, Heinrich von Kleist's sexually charged novella is as edgy today as it was when it was first published in 1808, and is accompanied here by two other celebrated stories, 'The Earthquake in Chile' and 'The Foundling', showcasing the range of their author's narrative abilities and his taste for the ambiguous and the paradoxical.Trade ReviewOne of the most radical writers who ever lived - Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisNathanael remains haunted by his childhood fear that the lawyer Coppelius, a strange night-time visitor who used to come to his house to conduct alchemical experiments with his father – the latter dying as a consequence of one of these sessions – was none other than the Sandman, a mythical figure who was said to steal the eyes of children who refused to go to sleep. When a mysterious Italian salesman comes to town, Nathanael’s suspicions are reawakened, pushing him to the brink of madness as extraordinary events unfold. First published in 1816, this classic of German Gothic fiction has enthralled generations ever since, and has spawned countless interpretations by critics intrigued by its powerful symbolism. Sigmund Freud famously examined the novella in relation to his concept of the “Uncanny”, and an extract from this analysis is included in this volume.Trade ReviewE.T.A. Hoffmann belongs to the eternal guild of poets and visionaries who take revenge on the life that is tormenting them by showing it examples of forms more colourful and diverse than reality can manage to convey. - Stefan ZweigTable of ContentsThis edition contains a note on the text, notes and an extract from Sigmund Freud's The Uncanny

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Book SynopsisPoverty-stricken and cut off from society, former law student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leads a desolate life in a dreary little room in St Petersburg. Having abandoned all hopes of sustaining himself through work, he now obsesses over the idea of changing his fortunes through an extreme act of violence: the killing of an elderly pawnbroker. His mind baulks at the horror of his plan, but when he hears that his sister Dunya is about to agree to a loveless marriage in order to escape the advances of her employer, his disgust for the world becomes unbounded, and his feelings of rebellion and revenge push him closer and closer to the edge of the precipice. A masterpiece of psychological insight, Dostoevsky's 1866 novel features some of its author's most memorable characters - from the temperamental protagonist Raskolnikov to the amoral sensualist Svidrigailov and the immoral lawyer Luzhin. Presented here in a sparkling new translation by Roger Cockerell, Crime and Punishment is a towering work in Russian nineteenth-century fiction and a landmark of world literature.

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Book SynopsisThe story of young Henry, who struggles to fulfil his ambitions to become a successful painter and is torn between the gentle Anna and the proud and sensual Judith, is one of the most outstanding and personal Bildungsroman writ¬ten in the German language. Composed between 1846 and 1855, Keller’s poetic, semi-autobiographical novel draws on the author’s own youth, artistic studies and development as a man, as well as providing a comprehensive portrait of his country and his times. Green Henry is one of the most important novels in European literature, and undoubtedly the greatest work of fiction by a Swiss writer.

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When the immoral libertine Monsieur de Franval marries and fathers a daughter, he decides to inculcate in her a sense of absolute freedom, an unconventional education that involves the two becoming secret lovers. But Franval's virtuous, God-fearing wife becomes suspicious and confronts him, setting off a tragic chain of events. Part of Sade's The Crimes of Love cycle, this shocking tale - which was among the writings banned for publication until the twentieth century - tests the limits of morality and portrays the disastrous consequences of freedom and pleasure.

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Book SynopsisIt is New Year’s Eve, and Nellie, the pretty daughter of a landowning general, is sitting in her room looking in the mirror. Although she is tired and her eyes are half closed, she is spellbound as the reflection in the looking glass dissolves into a sea of grey mist, in which she starts to discern the beloved features of her fiancé. As in a diorama, the scene keeps changing, and to the early snapshots of joyful marital life succeed other, more sinister images of care, sickness and bereavement, casting a long shadow onto the girl’s future. With ‘The Looking Glass’ Chekhov captured the very essence of the Russian soul. This short story, along with the others included in this collection, demonstrates why he is considered the absolute master of the genre.

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Book SynopsisPresented in a new translation by Roger Cockrell, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants was originally conceived as a play and first published in 1859, shortly after the author's release from forced military service. Gogolian in style and tone, and waspish in its description of the villainous Opiskin, it is a sustained exercise in caricatural cruelty and a comedic tour de force. The young Sergei is summoned from St Petersburg by his uncle, the retired colonel Yegor Rostanev, to the remote country estate of Stepanchikovo. Rostanev's household, populated by a medley of remarkable characters, is dominated by the figure of Foma Opiskin, a devious, manipulative hanger-on who has everyone in thrall and plots to marry the colonel to the woman of his choice, Tatyana Ivanova. When Opiskin finds that his plans are being thwarted, a confrontation with Rostanev ensues, and all hell is let loose.

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Book SynopsisHappily engaged to the poet Amandus, Fräulein Anna is horrified to discover that a beautiful ring, mysteriously deposited upon her finger whilst tending her kitchen garden, forces her into marriage with the gnome Corduanspitz. Can Anna find any way of removing the ring? Will her poet lover shake off his passive demeanour and come to her aid? And has Corduanspitz truly relinquished all ties to his gnome heritage?Around a love story very much of its time, Hoffman arranges a narrative that brings to mind the most successful elements of contemporary magical realism and surreal comedy. Always entertaining, yet capable of a focused though subtle morality, The King's Bride brings disparate elements into a masterful harmony.

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Book SynopsisCristiano is thirteen. Home life is far from perfect. When his father and two friends come up with a plan to rob a bank, Cristiano sees the chance of a better life. As a tremendous storm brews that night, Cristiano will have to put childhood behind him once and for all, and the perfect crime will have shocking consequences.Trade ReviewAmmaniti has cranked up the volume for his blistering new novel. * * Independent * *Every scene contains a twist. * * Guardian * *Brutal but effective. * * The Times * *Energy and danger spray off it like water from a choppy sea . . . Very hard to put down. * * Daily Mail * *One of Italy's brightest literary stars . . . Combines tense horror with the blackest comedy. * * Observer * *Ammaniti fills his scenes with such rich detail, humour and surprise that it is impossible not to be drawn in . . . A forceful portrait of contemporary Italy, providing a long overdue counterbalance to the romantic, tourism-drive portraits of the country. And yet, for all the harshness of his world, warmth bubbles up between the cracks. * * Financial Times * *Offers an artful interstiching of plots and cinematic, horror-dazed images, and Jonathan Hunt's translation is exemplary. * * Observer * *Undeniably gripping . . . Indeed, this is in a surprising way a love story. * * Scotsman * *A compulsively readable tragedy with a bleakly comic underbelly, as if the Kray twins' gang had been infiltrated by a couple of Marx brothers. * * Sunday Herald * *The Crossroads is a rollicking dark horror-comic, a gruelling piece of fun. * * Independent * *

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Book SynopsisGerda Persson has lain dead for three days. Her life seems to have been quite ordinary. Until the freezer in her home is opened. It is full of books, neatly stacked and wrapped in clingfilm, a thick layer of ice covering them - all by the same prize-winning author, all with handwritten dedications to Gerda.What story do these books have to tell? And what is their connection to a young boy found abandoned in an amusement park? Shadow is an utterly compelling novel of dark family secrets, murder and betrayal, which will keep you gripped until its final thrilling revelations.Trade ReviewAlvtegen's chilling novels are head and shoulders above most of the Scandi crew and...remind one forcefully of the early Barbara Vine novels. ... [Shadow] won't make you feel good about humankind, but it will keep you reading under the duvet during the small hours. -- Carla McKay * * The Daily Mail * *A truly irresistible read. * * Skånska Dagbladet * *Karin Alvtegen has become one of the greatest in the genre referred to as the psychological thriller . . . Shadow is . . . an excellent novel, suspenseful and intelligent and exceptionally well written. * * Eskilstuna-Kuriren * *Shadow is a classic Alvtegen novel - but with 'extra everything' . . . Like in her previous novels, Alvtegen moves aptly and confidently between odd characters and 'normal people', ordinary, everyday situations and disastrous moments . . . Once you've been properly sucked into the story, you are lost. * * Östgöta-Correspondenten * *Karin Alvtegen in brilliant shape . . . I read without stopping and with mounting excitement to see how Karin Alvtegen will tie it all together in the end. As the pro she is, she manages to to do just that, and the story builds up towards its dramatic and entirely unexpected denouement . . . Karin Alvtegen's new novel offers nearly four hundred pages of pure suspense. * * Jönköpings-Posten * *

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Book SynopsisWelcome to the house of the mosque . . . Iran, 1950. Spring has arrived, and as the women prepare the festivities, Sadiq waits for a suitor to knock on the door. Her uncle Nosrat returns from Tehran with a glamorous woman, while on the rooftop, Shahbal longs only for a television to watch the first moon landing. But not even the beloved grandmothers can foresee what will happen in the days and months to come. The household is set to experience great love and loss as it opens the doors to faith and politics. In this uplifting bestseller, Kader Abdolah charts the triumphs and tragedies of a family on the brink of revolution.Trade ReviewBeautifully written and fiercely readable * * Daily Mail * *Abdolah's is a powerful voice * * The Times Saturday Review * *Enchanting...Abdolah's juxtapositions - the spiritual and the earthly, myth and reality - give the story a powerful irony. * * Independent * *[Kader Abdolah] tells this story straight from the heart. And it's on the heart too that it leaves an indelible mark. * * The Scotsman Magazine * *Expertly mingles fiction and personal history to create a thought-provoking novel to please fans of Khaled Hosseini, Mohsin Hamid and Azar Nafisi. * * Waterstone's Books Quarterly * *fabulously powerful and heart warming * * Good Book Guide * *an impressive book [telling] a tragic story illustrating the power of the human spirit to conquer. * * The Bookseller * *Sensual, beguiling and elegantly translated. -- Alastair Mabbott * * Herald Arts * *Fabulously powerful and heart-warming. * * Good Book Guide * *Captivating and distinctive . . . a measured, beguiling and potent example of literary resistance * * Times Literary Supplement * *

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Book SynopsisThe setting for this magical fable is Eldorado, the Enchanted city that inhabited the fevered dreams of European navigators and conquistadors, but eluded all attempts to find it on the map. Some have linked it to Manaus in the Amazon Basin, and it is here that Arminto Cordovil lives with his father Amando in a white mansion.Theirs is a relationship full of passion and limitless ambition. Separating father and son is a remarkable cast of characters, from Angelina, the dead mother, to Denisio, the infernal boatman, and at the centre, Dinaura, a girl who betwitches Arminto and dreams of Eldorado...Orphans of Eldorado is a rich and magical fable that beautifully captures the atmosphere of the steamy, lush Amazonian world.Trade ReviewThe story is universal, though sensuously anchored in Manaus, gripping in both its particular twists and its tragic inevitability, it is a human story told in a world made real by a very good writer -- A.S. Byatt on Hatoum's THE BROTHERSA profoundly textured work that is sophisticated, elegant, unusually vivid and intriguingly convincing. -- Irish Times on Hatoum's TALE OF A CERTAIN ORIENTClear in each particular but tantalisingly elusive in its overall meaning, Orphans of Eldorado does what every good telling of a myth should. -- Adrian Turpin * * Financial Times * *Delicately crafted and dreamlike. * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisWhy did the taxi crash on the autobahn in Vienna?Who exactly were Besfort Y and Rovena, the mysterious couple who died after being flung from the back seat?How was Besfort connected to the war in the Balkans? And why was his affair with Rovena clouded in jealousy and mistrust?Who wanted them dead?This is the story of the last forty weeks of their lives - a fever dream where love and obsession collide.Trade ReviewOne of the most important voices in literature today. * * Metro * *His fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny - his historical allegories point both to the grand themes and small details that make up life in a restrictive environment. He is a great writer, by any nation's standards. * * Financial Times * *A master storyteller. -- John CareyOne of the great writers of our time. * * Scotsman * *Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness. * * Los Angeles Times * *The Accident cannot be put aide, but rickly teases the reader to try to understand more of the meaning of what, exactly, the cab driver glimpsed in his rear-view mirror. * * The Independent * *Ismail Kadare has somtimes been compared with Kafka, and you can see why. * * Scottish Mail on Sunday * *A compelling performance...lean, calm and footsure, Kadare's writing keeps you reading. -- Phil Baker * * The Sunday Times * *harks back to spy mysteries of the Cold War era...Kadare teasingly guides us through the search for an elusive truth...played out against the power struggles of Europe's states. * * The Metro * *one goes to him precisely for that quality of indeterminacy, which he uses to advance a very singular vision of the intractable murkiness of human affairs. * * The Guardian * *compelling * * The Guardian * *a deliberately mystifying book [with] a continental seriousness about it, a Milan Kundera-like quality about its very un-English mixture of sex and political history. * * the Sunday Times * *compulsive and unnerving...a provocative exploration of the sinister underside of human relations. -- Mary Fitzgerald * * The Observer * *In John Hodgson's translation, Kadare's prose retains its elusive elegance -- Jane Shilling * * The Sunday Telegraph * *There are books which seem less the second-time round; Kadare's seem more...one can relish his mastery of tone and the tireless probing intelligence of narrative. -- Allan Massie * * The Scotsman * *Beautifully told in sparce, simple prose. * * Scottish Review of Books * *Toys with the reader's mind in something of the same way Hoxha once played with Kadare and his fellow citizens. * * Herald * *

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Book SynopsisAn old woman is awoken in the dead of night by knocks at her front door. The woman opens it to find her daughter, Doruntine, standing there alone in the darkness. She has been brought home from a distant land by a mysterious rider she claims is her brother Konstandin. But unbeknownst to her, Konstandin has been dead for years. What follows is chain of events which plunges a medieval village into fear and mistrust. Who is the ghost rider?Trade ReviewHis fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny - his historical allegories point both to the grand themes and small details that make up life in a restrictive environment. He is a great writer, by any nation's standards. -- Ben Naparstek * * Financial Times * *One of the most important voices in literature today. -- Alan Chadwick * * Metro * *One of the great writers of our time. * * Scotsman * *A master storyteller. * * John Carey * *Ismail Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness. * * Los Angeles Times * *Spooky and intellectually challenging. * * The Herald on Sunday * *

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Book SynopsisThe world might be in the throes of a global recession but when an author on the brink of despair, an enigmatic musician, a supermodel and a Satanic sect meet with the cream of Italian high society at the home of a Roman property tycoon, the world outside the mansion's walls is soon forgotten. There's going to be one hell of a party. And you've got a VIP ticket.Trade ReviewA raunchy satirical romp -- IAN RANKIN[A] hilarious modern farce * * The Times * *Riotously, and very readably, satirical, Ammaniti has a ball poking fun at the excesses of the Berlusconi era and the insecurities of writers * * Herald * *Funny and sharp-eyed * * Literary Review * *A master storyteller. * * Guardian * *

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Book SynopsisThe day begins like any other Saturday for beautiful Parisian restaurateur Aurélie Bredin, until she wakes up to find her apartment empty - her boyfriend gone off with another woman. Heartbroken, Aurélie walks the streets of Paris in the rain, finally seeking refuge in a little bookshop in the Île Saint-Louis, where she's drawn to a novel titled The Smiles of Women by obscure English author Robert Miller. She buys it and takes it home, but when she begins to read she's astonished: The Smiles of Women can't possibly be about her restaurant, about her. Except, it is. Flattered and curious to know more, Aurélie attempts to get in touch with the reclusive Mr Miller, but it proves to be a daunting task. His French publishers seem determined to keep his identity secret, and while the Editor-in-Chief André Chabanais is happy to give Aurélie his time, he seems mysteriously unwilling to help her find her author. Is Robert Miller really so shy, or is there something that André isn't telling Aurélie?

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Book SynopsisWhen Abwehr Captain Eberhard Mock is called from his New Year's Eve revelries to attend a particularly grisly crime scene, even his notoriously robust stomach is turned. A young girl - and suspected spy - who arrived by train from France just days before, has been found dead in her hotel room, the flesh torn from her cheek by her assailant's teeth. Ill at ease with the increasingly open integration of S.S., Gestapo and police, Mock is partially relieved to be assigned to liaise with officers in Lvov, Poland, where a series of similar crimes - as yet unsolved - cast a long shadow over the town.Trade Review'Another of Krajewski's insightful burlesque thrillers, laden with a sense of time and place. A must for any fan of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther' Peter Millar, The Times. * The Times *

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Book Synopsis'This novel is a real, out-of-the-blue original. I've never read anything like it' New York Times Book ReviewTHE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE ITV SERIES STARRING KEVIN McKIDD AND VINETTE ROBINSON.THE MILLION-SELLING JAPANESE CRIME PHENOMENON, NOW A UK BESTSELLER.SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER.NAMED IN NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017.SIX FOUR.THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT. For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again.For the fourteen years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as 'Six Four'. They would never forgive the authorities their failure.For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case. He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find.Loved Six Four and want more Yokoyama? Then why not try Seventeen or Prefecture D . . .Trade ReviewNot only is Six Four an addictive read, it is an education about Japan, its police and its society, and simply one of the best crime novels I have ever read. -- David PeaceA classic plot about a decent cop painstakingly uncovering corruption suddenly turns into one of the most remarkable revenge dramas in modern detective fiction. * Sunday Times *It's very different, in tone, narrative and style, from almost anything out there . . . the twist and the pay-off are worth the wait. * Observer *A huge hit in Japan and it's easy to see why . . . steadily gathers menace and power until it becomes addictive. * The Times *The plot would grip in any language . . . not just a police procedural but a guide book to Japan . . . There's much talk these days of binge viewing; here is a binge read. * Guardian *Slow building, meticulous in its insistence on unfolding all the procedural elements of a Japanese crime investigation and its political ramifications, this is a novel that insidiously grows on you until you are fully captive of its narrative flow and can't put it down. -- Maxim JakubowskiAvoids every crime-fiction cliché . . . complex, ingenious and engrossing . . . If not a bow, you will at least want to give Hideo Yokoyama a tip of your hat for writing such a highly entertaining book. * Washington Post *Six Four gives back in abundance everything that the reader is prepared to give . . . demonstrating that crime fiction can be freighted with the weight and authority of serious literature. * Independent *An astonishing book, poetically translated, containing one of the most complex central characters in crime fiction. Sometimes publishing sensations exceed expectations; Six Four deserves its success - past, present and future. * Crime Scene *This novel is a real, out-of-the-blue original. I've never read anything like it . . . He's a master. * New York Times Book Review *Absorbing . . . Six Four is an intensely complicated work, fleshed out by dozens of well-sketched characters, filled with changing perceptions and surprising twists . . . Its rewards are commensurate: unexpected revelations and quiet instances of human connection. -- Best New Mysteries * Wall Street Journal *Six Four avoids every crime-fiction cliché. The reward is a gripping novel . . . Complex, ingenious and engrossing . . . Yokoyama possesses that elusive trait of a first-rate novelist: the ability to grab readers' interest and never let go. * Washington Post *Already a bestseller in Japan and the U.K., this cinematic crime novel suffused with fascinating cultural details follows a police department reinvestigating a chilling kidnapping that stumped them 14 years earlier. * Entertainment Weekly *Yokoyama's novel is a Jenga tower, each plot point and peripheral character part of an intricate balance . . . What is perhaps most striking about Six Four is the number of stories it contains. It probes the cruelty, pettiness and endless face-saving and ass-covering that come with bureaucratic infighting, as well as the anguished obsession that plagues the bereaved . . . a demanding and absorbing book. * O: The Oprah Magazine *Though it deploys common tropes of crime fiction and its lightly noir style, Six Four's unusual focus on the PR side of police work sets it apart and gives it unexpected heat. Yokoyama avoids simplistic moralizing, and instead offers the reader a compelling interrogation of duty. * Time magazine *Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four, translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies, is by no means just another mystery novel . . . thoroughly believable and compelling. This is a major book, one that will stay in your mind well after you have turned the last page. * BookPage *Extremely detailed style and carefully wrought characters. Six Four succeeds on several levels: as a police procedural, an incisive character study, and a cold-case mystery. * Booklist *[Six Four] takes leisurely twists into the well-kept offices of Japan's elite while providing a kind of informal sociological treatise on crime and punishment in Japanese society, to say nothing of an inside view of the police and their testy relationship with the media. Elaborate, but worth the effort. Think Jo Nesbø by way of Haruki Murakami, and with a most satisfying payoff. * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisNow a major French film Au revoir là-haut - Prix Goncourt-winning masterpiece by the writer who brought you Alex, Irène and Camille."One of the most pleasurable reading experiences of recent years" - David Mills, The Sunday TimesOctober 1918: the war on the Western Front is all but over. Desperate for one last chance of promotion, the ambitious Lieutenant Henri d'Aulnay Pradelle sends two scouts over the top, and secretly shoots them in the back to incite his men to heroic action once more.And so is set in motion a series of devastating events that will inextricably bind together the fates and fortunes of Pradelle and the two soldiers who witness his crime: Albert Maillard and Édouard Péricourt.Back in civilian life, Albert and Édouard struggle to adjust to a society whose reverence for its dead cannot quite match its resentment for those who survived. But the two soldiers conspire to enact an audacious form of revenge against the country that abandoned them to penury and despair, with a scheme to swindle the whole of France on an epic scale.Meanwhile, believing her brother killed in action, Édouard's sister Madeleine has married Pradelle, who is running a little scam of his own...Translated from the French by Frank WynneTrade ReviewThe vast sweep of the novel and its array of extraordinary secondary characters have attracted comparisons with the works of Balzac. Moving, angry, intelligent - and compulsive -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *A big, swirling tale that itself reads like a 19th-century novel ... thick with detail, immersing the reader in its elaborately bleak world -- Sarah Lyall * New York Times *This book is thick with detail, immersing the reader in its elaborately bleak world ... an irresistible story -- Patricia Wall * New York Times *Exceptionally powerful examination of the aftermath of war and of the people whose lives were washed away in its wake -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times *Lemaitre's novel is a rare synthesis of the tragic and the comic - a masterclass in nail-biting suspense ... Frank Wynne is a superb translator who captures the rude exuberance of the original French -- Edward Wilson * Independent *Engrossing . . . one of the most pleasurable reading experiences of recent years -- David Mills * The Sunday Times *Lemaitre's deadpan ironic tone is beautifully caught by his regular translator Frank Wynne. A kind of Ealing comedy with a bruised but still beating heart, this is the most purely enjoyable book I've read this year * Sunday Express *A fast-paced tale, filled with twists and turns, following a mischievous, disillusioned view of post-war France * Figaro *A masterly epic of post-war France, where impostures triumph and capitalists grow rich from the ruins * Le Monde *You feel the author's indignation ... Who really profits from war? Crooks, the vengeful and frauds: The Great Swindle is political as much as it is picaresque * Télérama *

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Book SynopsisSophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget.One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her. Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online. But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets . . .For fans of Gone Girl and Lemaitre's own internationally bestselling Alex, Blood Wedding is a compelling psychological thriller with a formidable female protagonist.Translated from the French by Frank WynneTrade ReviewA really excellent suspense novelist -- Stephen King.After the award-winning Brigade Criminelle trilogy of Irene, Alex and Camille, the French author returns with a deliciously dark tale of obsession, betrayal and revenge. * Daily Express *A scorching, serpentine novel . . . Lemaitre's skill with suspense shines from every page, supported at every turn by an elegantly constructed plot complete with elements of noir that would make even James Ellroy proud. -- Geoffrey Wansell * Daily Mail. *Absorbing and disturbing . . . the Psycho-based denouement is extraordinary. -- Marcel Berlins * The Times. *BLOOD WEDDING is agonisingly suspenseful . . . it twists and turns with grace and verve to reach a blistering conclusion -- Declan Hughes * Irish Times *Lemaitre is worthy of all the fuss * Independent. *

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